San Francisco Giants: Who is 40-man roster addition Jandel Gustave?

There’s a good chance we’ll see Jandel Gustave in the majors sometime soon after he was added to the San Francisco Giants 40-man roster on Thursday.

The San Francisco Giants made a handful of roster moves on Thursday, most notably optioning Andrew Suarez to Triple-A Sacramento and calling up Williams Jerez to take his place in the bullpen.

The team also transferred Rule 5 pick Travis Bergen to the 60-day injured list, which in turn opened up a spot on the 40-man roster.

That spot was immediately filled by one of the team’s relievers currently pitching out of the Triple-A Sacramento bullpen.

So who is Jandel Gustave?

The 26-year-old right-hander signed a minor league deal in February after he was granted free agency, and he’s searching for his first taste of big-league action since 2017 when he was a member of the Houston Astros organization.

In 20 career appearances in the majors, he’s posted a 3.98 ERA with 11 walks and 18 strikeouts in 20.1 innings, but his minor league performance this season has not exactly provided much reason for optimism.

He has an unsightly 6.85 ERA and 1.61 WHIP in 25 games at the Triple-A level, albeit with a solid 26-to-11 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 25.1 innings.

Over his last 10 games, he’s posted a 13.50 ERA and allowed a .351 opponents’ batting average in eight innings.

So why did the Giants move him one step closer to a spot on the MLB roster?

Despite the middling results, the 6’2″ right-hander has electric stuff, and he’s still shaking off the rust of several injuries that limited him to just 20 innings of work in 2017 and 2018 combined.

FanGraphs ranked him as the No. 26 prospect in the San Francisco Giants system in May, giving him a 70-grade fastball and 55-grade slider, while citing 40-grade command.

The stuff is there for him to be a late-inning force if he can further refine his command, and the Giants are in a prime position to give him a chance to do just that in the years to come.

Lefties Sam Selman and Fernando Abad are having better seasons, and a strong case can be made for one of them being added to the 40-man roster instead of Gustave.

Instead, the San Francisco Giants front office opted for hard-throwing Jandel Gustave, and it might not be long before we see him in the majors.